7.6 /10 1 Votes
Series Asterix Artists Albert Uderzo Language French Date 1996 | 3.8/5 Goodreads Writers Albert Uderzo Date of publication 1996 Originally published 1996 Followed by Asterix and the Actress Illustrator René Goscinny | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Preceded by Asterix and the Secret Weapon Similar René Goscinny books, Asterix books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asterix and Obelix All at Sea (French: La Galère d'Obélix, "Obelix's galley [ship]") is the thirtieth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by Albert Uderzo. The album was dedicated to Uderzo's grandchild, as well as American actor Kirk Douglas.
Contents
Plot summary
A band of slaves led by Spartakis (a parody of Spartacus) have taken over Julius Caesar's personal galley; whereupon Caesar sends his Admiral Crustacius to recover it.
After some arguing about a safe place to disembark, the slaves decide to set sail for the only place safe from the Romans: Asterix' Gaulish village. Crustacius, in pursuit, prepares to attack the village. When the Gauls prepare for battle, Obelix is (as usual) denied Getafix's magic potion. As the Gauls return victorious from battle, they find Obelix has drunk the remaining cauldron of magic potion - Getafix having made two cauldrons - and that this overdose has turned him into stone.
The former galley slaves are granted refuge, and Getafix tries desperate measures to revive Obelix. Ultimately Obelix returns to life; but as a child, and deprived of his strength. He thereafter is kidnapped by Roman soldiers as a hostage, and the former slaves travel with Asterix, Dogmatix, and Getafix to rescue him. After dropping off Crustacius, his adjutant Vice-Admiral Nautilus, and Caesar's galley with the pirates, Getafix guides his companions to the remnants of Atlantis (the Canary Islands), where the Atlantides have found eternal youth, in the hope that they can restore Obelix's adulthood; but learns that the Atlantides are unable to increase a patient's age. Therefore the Gauls head back to the village, while the freed slaves remain on Atlantis as children forever. On their way back, the Gauls are intercepted by another Roman galley, whereupon Asterix is incapacitated by a catapult stone. Seeing his friend in danger provokes Obelix to recover his strength and size, and rescue him; whereafter Obelix destroys the Roman outpost near the village, before returning for the village's victory feast.
On Caesar's galley, Crustacius is mistakenly given a dose of magic potion accidentally left behind by Getafix, and expels the pirates; but makes the same mistake as Obelix and is changed into a statue himself, and Nautilus's ambition of obtaining a promotion for bringing back the ship, is dashed when he forgets to remove the jolly roger flag from the galley on approaching Rome's harbour and some over-eager soldiers fire flaming ballista bolts against the supposed pirate vessel. The statue of the admiral is installed in the Circus Maximus, and Nautilus and the soldiers are reduced to sweeping the arena. When asked by Cleopatra about why he would erect a statue to commemorate the incompetent admiral, Caesar replies that although lions do not eat stone, things may change some day.